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Guardians Chapter 12
Arbiters Brief . Merle Varro mocked us for not yet having read the Codex of Gigas (second "G" is silent). We slinked out of the bar, Varro channeled his demon animal and let us go. Did some skytrain backtracking to avoid being observed by crows. Holed up in a Richmond airport hotel where I did some research on this Codex of Gigas. It was written by a 13th c. Benedictine monk who sold his soul to the Devil to create the book. The original manuscript is a huge tome located in the Czech Republic. But turns out there's a 14th c. copy of the Codex in the personal collection of Eric Nadler, former frontman of 80s punk band Demon Spunk, in East Van. Millie recovered the safe deposit box contents: a .38 pistol with six bullets carved with sigils, some cash, Father Jacob's Watcher journal, his passport, and a gold ring with an inscription. We broke into Eric Nadler's house off the Drive made off with the Codex plus a Tobin's Spirit Guide. His tenants downstairs, two college girls, saw us leaving and we pretended to be investigating Nadler. J-Dog did some research from Father Jacob's journal, not sure what he learned. His rant below is difficult to follow. Merle spent some time with the Codex, which is in six volumes. Two are Biblical content (the text of the Bible and some similar content). Three volumes have spells: Devil Trap, Exorcism and Demonic Ward. The last volume contains "the sum total of all human knowledge". It has rules on negotiating with demons. Crossroads demons are a type of arch-demon who love contracts. They can grant powers, always with a specific time window, in return for one giving up one's soul (Robert Johnson and the monk who authored the Codex in a single night being two examples). The book goes into the structures of Hell and its 13 Princes, one of whom is Rahm. There's a constant power struggle with soul wars in Hell, a perpetual stalemate of unending torment. Because it's so evenly balanced the demons' real war is the subtler one on Earth, which is more of a cold war using humans as proxies. There are Hellgates, one belonging to each Prince of Hell. The local one is Rahm's. The book also mentions a Lordsgate/Kingsgate, the uber-gate of the King of Hell (known as Lucifer or Hades or other names). The Codex also mentions Gilgorax, the knife hand demon. He's a petty scribe and bookkeeper who tallies souls for Rahm. It seems odd that he's mentioned in the book at all (Merle speculated that perhaps he crossed paths with the author). The famous picture of Satan in the Codex is actually Urdug, Rahm's lieutenant who Detective Quinn mentioned earlier. I think he's an archdemon, probably a crossroads demon. With all this new info and some new gear, we made our way to the Hellgate entrance at midnight low tide. Turns out Lawrence and J-Dog can't swim and weren't smart enough to get water wings. Whining ensued. Merle stole a rowboat and two PFDs, and we poled the boat up the tunnel. What will we find? J-Dog Fuck'n Varro. Just laughed at us, couldn't even be bothered to have his henchmen give us a beating. Run like bitches Run! The Crows are watching, its just like GT all over again! Skytrain roulette, no one would expect us in Richmond! At least the tool gave us an unwitting clue about an ancient manuscript that could help, and there's a copy in town. (36", even Big Eugene's gotta be impressed by that!). As soon as we go to the bank though, (and make an upgraded Mystic Skin Fetish). Not much in there for me, but something for the stabby shooty people at least... Oh, Money! Off to east-van punk manuscript collector's then, no time to wait an see if he is going to the 'last' DoA show. Millie, didn't you used to be better at picking locks than this? Oh, saving the Nat 20 for the safe then, good thinking! Here it is, 6 volumes of regular size, much easier to carry. With Anti-Demon Spells for the money-shot! Should've left a wee fetish dude in the safe... Murl, wait, the neighbours! Oh those poor girls are so confused... Rest of the day to read the Watcher's last journal, (Stones activating, Council unsure, Hell-Mouth opening, beat the Demon back to hell, yadda yaddda), finish Acrobatics Training & Meditate a bit. Midnight. Low-Tide my ass, that looks like 7 feet of water in there. No I'm not getting in, shits all milky & writhing with soul-leaches. Looks like the the other end of the same pipe we were crawling in before actually. Wonder why the salt in the ocean water isn't frying them? OK, sure, stealing a row-boat is a good Idea as long as its not mine, (black-man's opinion gets no respect I tells ya!) PFD for Me! What, fuck-boat bullshit motherfuckingcocksucker-SPLASH! Bullshit. Well, at least the Hazmat gear is providing a protective layer of salt-water around my body, should keep the leaches off. Into the Tunnel! Nothing to see yet, not until the bars 150 feet in. Already bent and broken? Nice. Whoah, careful Murl! Thanks Charlotte. Good thing I finished my agility training earlier in the evening! Millie Fuck Varo’s hot. I mean that whole goth thing is kinda lame, but the scary power… Damn why do I always fall for these obvious shitheads? Gotta stay cool, can’t let the others know... Fortunately, Varo didn’t immediately sacrifice us. He did laugh at us and make some reference to how we haven’t even read the Codex of Byax or something? I continue to be supremely disappointed that this whole Millie the Demon Slayer thing involves so much reading. So we bailed on the club and the next day went over to the bank to retrieve the contents of the safety deposit box. Armed with the the key and the passphrase, I made my way into the bank. These last couple weeks have been so crazy, when I noticed some guy checking me out my first thought was that I was being followed by a demon! To be fair, these pants are killer. Inside the safety deposit box was a 38 with 6 bullets engraved with anti-demon nukes, Father Jacob’s journal, his passport and $10,000 cash. Scoop and bail! The wizard had tracked down a copy of the codex Varo mentioned in the hands of some aging punk. We headed over and made a bit of a mess trying to get in front. I should know by now to always go straight for the backdoor. Whoever this punk is, he’s doing pretty well for himself as the place was well furnished. Scoped out the safe and Nat20 that shit: magic knife, some cash and a lil coke. Upstairs we find the voluminous Codex of Gynax. Low tide and we don the hazmat gear and hop into false creek. We loudly wasted a bunch of time and then stole a boat. We rowed up to the sewer and saw it was covered in grubs, crawling up the walls and on the ceiling. This must be the the same pipe we used to find Marco! Charlotte Holy shit. The bouncer is Varro. Time to GTFO! Zephyr, my BFF is here? Let's jet and hit some clubs. Teach me how to be the best wingman (Public Speaking). I want to learn from the mistress! I've lost the rest of the group in the panic to leave. I'm sure they'll contact me before they hit the bank or do anything too crazy. Time to get some work done! First things first, let's crank out that Electronics program lvl4. I need that for the next step: upgrading my phone to a lvl4 comp and giving it pr1 (waterproofing). Sure was nice of Millie to score those parts for me a few days back! Now for a little dumpster-diving behind The Source. Sweet tech garbage. It's just what I need for the Laser Sight lvl4 upgrade (phew - raw Weapons Engineering is a rough DF) on the shotgun. Now it packs a punch and can shoot the nipples of a Furry at 45 feet. Lastly, I'll continue my Public Speaking by talking into the mirror in the Truck for hours - fun! Oh, I just got a text from Merle. What?? They're heading into the sewers to find the Temple entrance? Madness! I better pick up a life vest and head over their fast before they all die without me and leave me alone to face the demon prince. He also mentioned they had $3000 for me. Sounds like the bank must have been a bust if that's all they got - I'll have to ask what happened when I see them. Twitch So after a few weeks of following the rest of the group around and cleaning up after them it was starting to look like they could be trusted to cover my back. Of course the first thing that happens is Charlotte takes us to some moody club where people still think its the 90's and drop is in Varro's lap. And then disappears. I thought it was J-Dog with his hair collecting and voodoo dolls that was going to cause trouble. Thankfully Varro actually couldn't give two shits about us - branded or not. Kind of reminds me of a predator grooming its prey. Couldn't help but feel like we simple weren't ripe for whatever he wants us for. Bailed out of that club pretty fast. After following up Barlow's comments regarding the Codex Giggas I'm starting to think Varro made a pact with one of those contract demons. Probably full of power, but only for a limited time - or with some other catch. That intel could keep us safe some day. I wonder if there is anyway for us to figure out what the specific conditions are. Will need to finish Tim's notes on demons and see if there in anything useful in the Codex. It was a fairly effective night. We cleared out Father Jacob's safety deposit box, kept out of trouble, and even managed to pick up a copy of the Codex. Still can't believe a decent night was ruined by such morally questionable behaviour - "Who the fuck steals a boat?" Sure their were sewer grubs and J-Dog can't swim, but there was also a front entrance. And being in this boat isn't a hole lot better - the grubs are just begging to drop off the ceiling right in here with us.... Category:Guardians